By Kent Williams

Friday nights ballgame between the Oregon Ducks(6-3) and the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos(5-3) was full of twists and turns. For the first 7 innings, UCSB held a slight advantage thanks to two solo home runs from freshman Zander Darby. Then, a reversed foul call that cost Oregon a run followed by a missed balk call got head coach Mark Wasikowski fired up and eventually tossed from the 1-run game. The Ducks responded by scoring a run in the 8th to tie it up on a Colby Shade single. The top of the ninth saw Kolby Somers get into some trouble but he showed why he's one of Oregon's best pitchers by getting himself out of the jam with three straight strikeouts. Once the bottom half of the inning rolled around, second baseman Gavin Grant took a big hack at the first pitch he saw and sent the fans into a frenzy, walking off the Gauchos with a bomb just under the left field scoreboard for the Ducks win, 3-2.

Game story by Kent Williams

Postgame Audio

Coach Mike Wasikowski

Second baseman Gavin Grant postgame

Pitcher Kolby Somers postgame